Early Departure After Arriving in Vancouver after Cruise - Can It Be Done?

[WESTPAC72]

Sailing Princess for first time in August 2017 on an Alaskan cruise ending in Vancouver. Is it possible to make an Alaskan Airlines flight departing at 11:00AM. As with other cruise lines, does Princess have the option of departing "first" after following arrival in port. You are responsible for carrying off your luggage. In this way, you are the first to leave the ship so you can make an early flight.

 

How long will it take to get to the Vancouver airport?

 

Appreciate any assistance.

[Colo Cruiser]

Sailing Princess for first time in August 2017 on an Alaskan cruise ending in Vancouver. Is it possible to make an Alaskan Airlines flight departing at 11:00AM. As with other cruise lines, does Princess have the option of departing "first" after following arrival in port. You are responsible for carrying off your luggage. In this way, you are the first to leave the ship so you can make an early flight.

 

How long will it take to get to the Vancouver airport?

 

Appreciate any assistance.

 

 

IMO......

You would have to be in the first self walk-off group carrying your luggage and take a taxi.

[Astro Flyer]

WESTPAC72...see that you were on the DE-1036 in '72, did you escort us on the CVA-41 on our WESTPAC in '72?

Edited May 7, 2017 by Astro Flyer

[Bill B]

It should be a 30-minute taxi ride to YVR... but it's best to figure on 1 hr. to be on the safe side.

[WESTPAC72]

Astro Flyer

 

USS McMorris DE-1036 was a diesel powered DE. Our max speed (going down hill) was about 21 knots. We would have never been capable of keeping up with you. What we gave up in speed, we made up for in endurance and range (9,000 nm). The ship was configured for independent steaming and special collection operations. When we encountered a carrier, they just sped by us. Could only keep up with them if we were both in port.

[sonomaphil]

You can do it, but any issues, late arriving ship, customs problems, etc. could put you in jeopardy. If you try, this have a backup plan.

[martincath]

It's easily possible if you self-disembark. If you're among the first group off you could be at YVR before 8:30am, and while 3 hours pre-flight is the official recommendation for US/international flights it's only necessary when there's a glut of people all heading to YVR at the same time (e.g. 3 ships in port, arrive at YVR 10am or so with thousands of your fellow pax also flooding the checked bags, security and immigration preclearance lines and you will want three hours to be safe).

 

Taxi is 30mins plus traffic pier to airport; SkyTrain is 26mins platform to platform, as little as 2 mins between trains, ~10mins walking and figuring out how to buy tickets, so if cab queue looks like you'd wait more than 10 mins it's almost certainly faster to take Skytrain (and it's a LOT more consistent in timing).

 

If you have Global Entry or NEXUS to short-circuit the security and immigration queues then you could be at your gate by 9am. I still don't recommend this plan - much better to hang around sightseeing in a fantastic city where your dollar will stretch and there's more stuff to see and do than all the ports in AK put together - but if your only viable option is an 11am flight I'd have very little concern about making it.

 

Just be sure to weight all the controllable elements in your favour - be off as early as possible (obviously), with your own bags (no chance of delay finding them in terminal), avoid cruise transfers like the plague (waiting for a bus to fill then fighting 50+ others who arrive at YVR same time as you), and know how to get to SkyTrain in case there's a delay with the taxi queue (shouldn't be an issue if you are first off - but first off YOUR ship may mean being behind dozens to hundreds of pax from one or two OTHER ships!)

 

The downside of an 11am flight is very simply that if anything remotely big does go wrong outwith your control - ship propulsion problems or bad weather delay arrival, large scale power failure or smaller one that impacts pier or airport, auto crash on one of the bridges (all things that have happened) you don't have enough padding to still make your flight. Odds are very low of any of these of course, and in many cases if a big issue arose a noon or even later flight would still be missed.

[xlxo]

@Westpac72: Which arrival date? Hope it's not August 2 when there's three ships docking and the Island Princess is the last scheduled to be docked.

 

Vancouver is a great bonus port to stuck without a boat or plane. Lots of things to do for a multi-day stay.

[VibeGuy]

Martincath is dead on and you should take his advice.

 

One factor that would weigh on my mind is where you're going on Alaska. Some cities m, if something goes wrong, you're not in too much trouble. Others, it can be multi-day rolling standby.

[easyboy]

IMO......

 

You would have to be in the first self walk-off group carrying your luggage and take a taxi.

 

 

Ditto.

 

 

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[Island wannabe]

I just checked my next ticket flying Canada to US. Flying to US is not considered international, it is transborder and recommended check in time is 2 hours in advance at least from Canada to US (not the 3 hours I have seen numerous times mentioned all over CC) and last baggage drop is 60 minutes prior to flight. Vancouver is gorgeous - if you can spend extra hours or an extra day or two do it. If it isn't an option then do self-disembark and you will be fine. All depends on how comfortable you are with risk. However if you leave 1 hour to walk off the ship, wait for a taxi, drive to airport and check in 2 hours in advance, working backwards you would need to be off the ship by 8 am.

[Once Upon A Time]

We just got off the Star Princess in Vancouver this past Saturday (May 6th) and used a brand new service provided by Princess.. Direct to Bus. We met in the Vista Lounge as a group, were taken off the ship after the walk offs.. quickly through customs (had given forms to front desk in advance) direct to buses waiting alongside the ship at pier level.. our luggage was waiting for us at the airport, where it was tagged by the airline and put on a conveyor to the planes.. we then passed through security and US customs.. whole process took about an hour, including drive time to airport...amazingly smooth.. We were the first bus of the first group (Red1) on the first cruise that the new process is being used. It could have gone badly, but the number of personnel giving help and instructions though out the process was phenomenal .. I'd use this again without hesitation..

[Potstech]

Astro Flyer

 

USS McMorris DE-1036 was a diesel powered DE. Our max speed (going down hill) was about 21 knots. We would have never been capable of keeping up with you. What we gave up in speed, we made up for in endurance and range (9,000 nm). The ship was configured for independent steaming and special collection operations. When we encountered a carrier, they just sped by us. Could only keep up with them if we were both in port.

 

Was on CLG 5 USS Oklahoma City from Jun 72 till May 74 out of Yokuska, Japan.

[xlxo]

We just got off the Star Princess in Vancouver this past Saturday (May 6th) and used a brand new service provided by Princess..

This is very handy with a 3 ship day. To clarify....

• what time did you meet at the Vista lounge?
  
• did you need to complete any Canadian custom forms?
  
• what time did you arrive at the airport with your Red 1 group?
  
• what time was your flight?
  

[Astro Flyer]

Astro Flyer

 

USS McMorris DE-1036 was a diesel powered DE. Our max speed (going down hill) was about 21 knots. We would have never been capable of keeping up with you. What we gave up in speed, we made up for in endurance and range (9,000 nm). The ship was configured for independent steaming and special collection operations. When we encountered a carrier, they just sped by us. Could only keep up with them if we were both in port.

Then maybe you caught up with us in Subic. ;)

 

My '72 cruise book has an underway replenishment photo with DE-1037 (USS Bronstein) powered by steam turbine engines with a top speed of 24 knots. The USS Midway's 33 knots speed necessary for flight ops on calm days was too fast for that escort also when sailing at top speed.

 

Was on CLG 5 USS Oklahoma City from Jun 72 till May 74 out of Yokuska, Japan.

The Midway occasionally visited Yokuska during your deployment when we weren't on Yankee Station (AKA Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club). Subic was our primary overseas port which Filipino crew on Princess tell me is now a popular vacation resort destination.

 

Thankfully I can still visit my starboard cat work station on the Midway in SD.

[martincath]

I just checked my next ticket flying Canada to US. Flying to US is not considered international, it is transborder and recommended check in time is 2 hours in advance at least from Canada to US (not the 3 hours I have seen numerous times mentioned all over CC) and last baggage drop is 60 minutes prior to flight. Vancouver is gorgeous - if you can spend extra hours or an extra day or two do it. If it isn't an option then do self-disembark and you will be fine. All depends on how comfortable you are with risk. However if you leave 1 hour to walk off the ship, wait for a taxi, drive to airport and check in 2 hours in advance, working backwards you would need to be off the ship by 8 am.

Pearson may only recommend 2 hours before (but even that is only for flights after 10am), but YVR most definitely recommends 3 hours at all times and has for many years.

 

It's definitely overkill - except when it's not (early season three-ship days for example, when just the cab queue at the pier has been recorded as up to three hours long!). Without knowing the exact date of OPs flight, I prefer to err on the side of caution and counsel taking every possible option to be among the very first people off the ship - if you're the first people in CBSA and cab queues it doesn't matter how many other ships there are, you'll still beat all your fellow pax to the airport queues.

 

 

Leaving the ship at 8am when you're on the only vessel in port is totes doable for an 11am flight - but on a 3-shipper, when first groups disembark each vessel as early as 7:15am...? Recipe for disaster IMO and I would wager serious coin on a cab wait time of at least 30mins even if you sailed through CBSA with minimal delay. We have much less cab capacity cf Toronto per head of population, and no Uber etc. to pick up the slack - though SkyTrain is much more efficient at moving people than the UP Express.

[GloriaF]

If you have not visited Vancouver before, and have the time, I would postpone flying out by 2-3 days and take the time to see some of Vancouver. We did this on our AK cruise and were so glad we did!!

[dcl1710]

We have a 11:30 flight from Vancouver. We are self disembarking and getting a car service because we know it will be close. The Vancouver airport can be efficient but we have seen when it is nuts. But hopefully it will work out. Alaska is worth it.

[kwokpot]

We just got off the Star Princess in Vancouver this past Saturday (May 6th) and used a brand new service provided by Princess.. Direct to Bus. We met in the Vista Lounge as a group, were taken off the ship after the walk offs.. quickly through customs (had given forms to front desk in advance) direct to buses waiting alongside the ship at pier level.. our luggage was waiting for us at the airport, where it was tagged by the airline and put on a conveyor to the planes.. we then passed through security and US customs.. whole process took about an hour, including drive time to airport...amazingly smooth.. We were the first bus of the first group (Red1) on the first cruise that the new process is being used. It could have gone badly, but the number of personnel giving help and instructions though out the process was phenomenal .. I'd use this again without hesitation..

I was on the same cruise and used the same service, but had Red#2. Your post implies that your luggage was automatically tagged by your airline and taken to the conveyor belt - is that what you're saying? That WAS NOT WHAT happened to us. WE collected our bags at the terminal and had to queue up at our airline's check-in desk (American Air which DID NOT open until 10am) get our bags tagged and walk our OWN luggage to the conveyor belt . Please clarify your remarks.

[kwokpot]

This is very handy with a 3 ship day. To clarify....

• what time did you meet at the Vista lounge?
  
• did you need to complete any Canadian custom forms?
  
• what time did you arrive at the airport with your Red 1 group?
  
• what time was your flight?
  

All groups on this program met at 7:35-7:40am at the Vista Lounge. Walk off 1(on your own) was at 7:30am

Yes you needed to complete a Canada Customs Form

I was on RedBus#2 and we arrived about 9:20am Our flight was at 2:00pm so no issues.

If you have Global Entry or Nexus it will make things MUCH, MUCH easier!

[notentirelynormal]

Sailing Princess for first time in August 2017 on an Alaskan cruise ending in Vancouver. Is it possible to make an Alaskan Airlines flight departing at 11:00AM. As with other cruise lines, does Princess have the option of departing "first" after following arrival in port. You are responsible for carrying off your luggage. In this way, you are the first to leave the ship so you can make an early flight.

 

How long will it take to get to the Vancouver airport?

 

Appreciate any assistance.

 

Keep in mind that you go through US Customs/Immigration in Vancouver. Depending, that can take 1 to 2 hours, plus getting there to check in etc. So, do a time line backwards. Time AT the airport, time to get to the airport, time to get off ship. There is a reason that before 1:30 is not recommended (I think it is 1:30)